


Survivors (Prompt/Drabble Collection)

by ShinySurfinRaichu



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Action, Drabble Collection, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-16 20:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13644291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinySurfinRaichu/pseuds/ShinySurfinRaichu
Summary: A series of drabbles based on prompts I've chosen or have been suggested. Intended to focus on Aloy/Ikrie, tags will be added as chapters are added. Rating may change with future chapters.





	1. We Won't Have An Easy Road

**Author's Note:**

> From a tumblr sentence prompt, "What if I said no?"
> 
> Aloy and Ikrie have been lovers for several months, but the Aloy's constant trips cause a problem.

It's late, it always is when Aloy leaves. The darkness makes it easier, if she left in the morning she would be tempted to stay. If she left in the morning there were too many excuses that could be made.

"Where are you going this time?" Ikrie asks.

A lie finds its way to the front of her mind, but doesn't quite roll off her tongue. It's not easy for her to do so anymore. Aloy looks away, eyes fixing on the last rays of light grasping at the night sky.

"Nowhere in particular." Aloy says.

Even without looking, she can feel the disappointment flash across Ikrie's face. An apology almost surfaces, but not quite. Aloy could fix this, but she could also do the same thing she does every time; run. Come back to Ban Ur after this night is a fuzzy memory.

"Could you stay, just one more night?" Ikrie's voice wobbles.

She responds with a ghost of a whisper, "What if I say no?"

There isn't an answer for several minutes. Aloy screws her eyes shut and regrets the words. She shouldn't have said it, but there was this pit in her stomach that rolled viciously every time they went through this.

Their relationship was...different. Or at least different than what Aloy figured it should be. In a way, they were both broken. Poor Ikrie was just so, so dependent on her. Aloy hated to admit it, but she was terrified of what would happen when she allowed herself to settle down. What evil would inevitably take away the ones she loved away again. 

Her eyes startled open when Ikrie finally spoke, "I would understand."

Aloy almost couldn't remember what they were talking about, what she had last said. Then it came back, and tears threatened to spill over. Why was Ikrie so patient with her? 

"Thank you." She mumbles.

"What for?" There's a hint of amusement in Ikrie's voice. 

Aloy turns to her, "For being you."

Suddenly, she's being enveloped in a warm embrace. Aloy tries not to flinch or laugh when a cold nose is pressed against her neck. She returns the hug, pulling Ikrie even closer. It's hard to let go, Aloy's instincts scream to hold her and never let go, to never let anything get near her lover.

When they finally part, both of their eyes are shiny with tears. Not sad ones, of course, but their emotions were strung high at the moment. There is so, so much affection written on Ikrie's face. Aloy hopes that her own face has even the smallest fraction of the same look. Then again, given how everyone insists she's as easy to read as an open book, there most definitely is.

"I'm going to miss you." Ikrie whispers.

Aloy shakes her head and smiles, "You don't have to, I'm not going anywhere."


	2. Man's Best...Machine?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While out on a hunting trip, Aloy brings something surprising back. Ikrie doesn't know how to feel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt "which half of your OTP would bring home a stray dog."

"Aw, shit!" 

Ikrie swiftly brought her finger to her mouth, dropping the flint that she had been gripping in her other hand. The salty tang of blood became apparent and she groaned internally. Pulling her hand away, Ikrie studied the wound.

It wasn't deep, thankfully, but it did span the length of her middle finger. The blood was already beginning to dry and scab over. That was good, at least. She would still need to bandage it, if she wanted to be able to continue starting a fire. 

It would have been better to leave her gloves on, but Ikrie had wanted a steadier hold on the flint. Her aim had been to start the fire quickly and move on, but instead the cold had made her hands shake. A simple mistake, but damn if it hadn't stung when she missed and scraped her finger instead. 

Once the cut was cleaned and wrapped, Ikrie moved back outside of the tent. Two more tries and the fire was blazing like intended. Finally. Now she could get to roasting some food and preparing to rest for the evening. 

The inside of the tent held just the softest glow of firelight, not that Ikrie needed it. She always set up the tent the same way, that way she could navigate by instinct and memory. It made snatching her provisions pack and shuffling through her furs to grab Aloy's extra Ridgewood second nature.

All of the sudden Ikrie was aware of tremors in the ground. Soft at first, but growing with every few beats. Footsteps, and big ones at that. Really big footsteps. She didn't even have time to sigh in frustration. 

It was a risk, but she only had one way out of the tent and she had to see which way to escape to. Poking her head out just barely, Ikrie almost recoiled in shock.

There, scarcely three meters away, was Aloy. That in itself wasn't the shocking part, what was standing next to her was. Ikrie forced herself up and out of the tent stiffly. 

"What...is that?" Ikrie asked incredulously.

Aloy looked slightly baffled when she answered, "A scorcher?" 

It took quite a bit of effort not to snort at that, but the hulking machine standing before her kind of killed the normal good humor she normally sported.

"Aloy, I know what a Scorcher is, I meant what is it doing here?" Ikrie said.

"Oh...yeah." 

Aloy shuffled awkwardly and looked over at the beast. It tilted it's head at her, letting out a noise similar to a robotic whine. Ikrie knew that Aloy's fancy spear could override machines, and that she often used it to procure mounts for them to travel long distances.

They had even talked about how she had used it to control bigger machines, things like Sawtooths and even a Thunderjaw once. Somehow, despite these conversations, seeing that up close and personal was a whole 'nother story.

"Well..." Aloy trailed off, as if she couldn't think of a suitable response. 

Swallowing her nerves, and the warning bells singing in her mind, Ikrie took a few hesitant steps closer. The Scorcher swung it's head around to observe her and she flinched away from it.

"He won't hurt you." Aloy insisted, bemused. 

"It's a machine." She said with one eye brow raised.

Her companion shrugged, "Just felt like a "he"." 

"I guess I can see it." She begrudged. 

The Scorcher looked curious, if a machine was even capable of giving off emotion. It, he shifted it's haunches and settled into the snow, making the ground tremble.

"I found him, over near the hot springs. By that big uh...geyser? I think that's what it's called." Aloy continued, resting a hand on the machines head. 

"Somehow 'found him' doesn't seem like a good thing." She huffed.

"Well, I was going to clear out a control tower near there and wanted some back up. My focus showed me where he was, but when I got there he was injured." Aloy said.

Every once in awhile the protrusions from the machines head, the one's that resembled ears, would swivel around. Ikrie had spent long enough being a hunter to recognize a creature on alert. Even when it was overridden, it was paying attention to it's surroundings, scanning for danger. 

Curiosity got the better of her, and Ikrie reached a hand out tentatively to stroke the machines ear...thing. The Scorcher tilted it's head towards her. The inquisitive side of her wondered how it worked, did it capture sound like a real ear, or was it a scanner of some sort?

"He doesn't look injured." Ikrie commented after a moment. 

"Yeah, I started to fix him up, so that I could override him. After that I finished, and he started following me back."

"You make it sound like that's not normal." She glanced over.

Aloy shook her head, "It isn't. Machine's that are this big, and ones like watchers, normally stick to their paths or territories, in my experiance."

"Huh." Was her only reply.

Suddenly, the Scorcher lifted it's head swiftly. It practically jumped to it's feet, causing Ikrie to stumble and fall backwards in fright. Time seemed to slow down before her eyes.

The machine switched to a glaring red light seeping from it's insides and crouched low to the ground. To it's left side, Aloy darted in across it's path and threw herself over Ikrie.

Her vision was blocked by the heavy chestpiece Aloy wore, but the way the ground jolted and snow rained around them was a clue; the Scorcher had leapt at them. Ikrie sucked in a ragged breath, fear flooding her senses.

The first clue that they hadn't been crushed to death was the terrible sound of metal tearing against metal. Ikrie's legs felt weak, and she guessed Aloy's did too. The other woman was still holding her to the ground productively, but her eyes were fixed on the commotion.

Managing to brace herself on one arm, Ikrie twisted around to look as well. She was shocked to see Aloy's Scorcher with it's jaws wrapped around the massive leg of a Frostclaw. 

Both of them suddenly found their senses, and Aloy helped Ikrie to her face quickly. They darted towards a large snow dune next to several tall trees. Aloy boosted her into the tree first, then paused to make sure the brawling machine's weren't headed towards them yet. 

Ikrie stared at her crushed camp forlornly, knowing the she could do nothing to assist in this fight without her weapons. Plus, all of her work setting that stuff up was now ruined. Aloy had scrambled into the neighboring tree and had her bow drawn. They exchanged a nervous look.

The Frostclaw had wrenched itself free by now, and the two enormous beasts were circling each other fearlessly. One would bellow out a challenge, and the other would reply with a threatening snap of it's jaws. 

Aloy's Scorcher rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a devastating charge from it's larger foe. The Frostclaw landed on it's side, the other machine was on it in a heartbeat with powerful, ripping bites. A howl of pain so intense that it shook the tree below her feet rang out, but the battle wasn't over yet.

The jaws of the Frostclaw sunk into the Scorcher's front leg, and he was tossed aside. The other machine rose up on it's hind legs and let out a roar of triumph. It was now that Aloy, who had been watching carefully, made her first move.

She shot out several arrows in a startlingly quick succession. The first one caught the beast off-guard and it stumbled to the side. A second, and then a third, and then a fourth struck at it's exposed belly. 

The Frostclaw had been injured enough in the earlier fight, that that was all it took to finish things. It's belly exploded, sending shards and wires, and who knows what else flying in all directions. What was left of the machine crumbled into the snow drifts.

Everything fell eerily silent after that, not even the wildlife made a sound. The only movement was that of the Scorcher, which started struggling to his feet. Wobbling heavily, he turned and began to limp back to the two of them.

Aloy kept her bow drawn, but didn't loose another arrow. They eyed the machine warily as it made it's way back over to them. A weak red light was still emitted; was it going to attack them even as weak as it was? Ikrie wished that the other woman would just shoot already.

To her surprise, instead of doing that Aloy descended the the branches and dashed over to the Scorcher. Ikrie's breath caught in her through, as instinct sent a stab of panic through her, but nothing happened.

The huntress began pulling metal and wires and shards out of her bag, Ikrie guess she was repairing the machine. Despite looking hostile, the machine didn't hurt Aloy or even move. 

Climbing down with shaky hands, she made her way over to them. Ikrie paused a couple feet away, still concerned. The Scorcher turned it's head to her and whimpered. Her heart softened, and Ikrie covered the last stretch to crouch beside Aloy. 

"I guess he really does like you, huh." Ikrie admitted. 

"Yeah." Aloy smiled absentmindedly as she worked, "that Frostclaw could have killed us. He knew I could fix him."

Ikrie wasn't sure she agreed with that, but the evidence did seem to point to that. She had never considered that machines could feel or think for themselves in that way, but this one had risked it's hide to defend them.

"So, we can keep him, right?" Aloy looked over with a smirk as she finished up.

Ikrie felt herself laugh in return, "Don't push it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any tips/constructive criticism are greatly appreciated!!!
> 
> feel free to send any prompts/AUs/ideas to snowghostikrie on tumblr or comment here!!!


	3. Trapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> took an extra couple days with this, tossing around some endings. the prompt was "you don't have to be".

Things are bad. It's an understatement, things are so terribly bad, worse than they've ever been. Pain is making Ikrie's mind delirious, blurring everything in front of her. It takes several minutes and lots of blinking to recognize Aloy's concerned face hovering over hers.

"Come on, please stay awake, please." Her voice threatens to break.

That alone is a testament to just how fucked they are. Aloy is normally so composed, her face might give away her thoughts, but her words don't. She's a hunter, she's tough, and she's good at hiding her weakness.

Ikrie cranes her neck shakily and tries to get a good look at her lower half. Just that simple movement sends a jolt of pain along her spine, but she has to know. Aloy tries to help, lifts her as much as she's able to without hurting her further.

The sight of all that blood makes her gag, which is new. Ikrie hasn't had trouble with that before, hunting is integral to survival and blood has never bothered her before.

But this is different, it stains her furs and makes her skinny sticky. Crude bandages span from mid thigh up to just under her ribs, twisting along in an unnatural pattern. It's the best they could do in a hurry, but it certainly wasn't a pretty sight.

The memory of it being inflicted, not even half an hour ago, haunts her and dances at the edges of her consciousness. A strangled scream, that she dimly recognizes as her own, rings in her ears.

Something warm drips onto her cheek suddenly, dragging her back to reality for a moment. Aloy is fighting back tears, teeth digging into her lip. One drop has already fallen, and more are swirling in those sad, hazel eyes.

Outside of the crevice they're holed up in, machine howls pierce the air. They're looking for her and Aloy. It's only a matter of time before their hiding spot is discovered, and then the little hope they did have would be snuffed out. 

The machines were far to big to fit in here, but they weren't like normal predators. They had the ability to sit here and wait until the women either died or were forced into their jaws. That wasn't a pleasant thought and Ikrie grimaced.

Aloy had turned away, eyes narrowed sharply at the opening of their shelter. There was no doubt in Ikrie's mind that she was racing through every possible idea to get them out of there in one piece. Well, in relatively one piece she supposed.

"Aloy..." Her voice croaked after a moment.

The huntress jerked around to look at her in an instant. There were wet track marks on her face, ones that Ikrie hadn't seen earlier. 

"What's wrong?" She asked anxiously.

It was hard to admit, but after a shaky breath she managed to say, "I'm scared."

Had Ikrie ever said that before? Probably not, just about anyone who grew up in Ban Ur would rather die than admit a weakness like that. Something about this situation, or being here with Aloy, had caused it to bubble to the surface. 

Surprisingly, Aloy didn't say the same. Instead, here features hardened, a sudden protectiveness taking over. Ikrie didn't know what to make of it, in her pain induced stupor, but she thought a blush might have crept across her face. 

"You don't have to be, Ikrie. Not while I'm here." Aloy says softly.

Her hand lifts up hesitantly, and stays there for several moments, before gingerly cupping Ikrie's face. If circumstances were different, she might have swooned. Her feelings for Aloy were no secret, even if they hadn't been reciprocated (or denied) yet. 

Ikrie's face was clammy and cold, making the warmth of Aloy's hand stand out even more. It sort of felt like the whole world had stopped and the two of them were the only things still moving. 

"You'll never have to be afraid as long as I'm here." Aloy said.

Then, she leaned down and kissed Ikrie's cheek softly. Oh how she wished the other woman would do that again, but you know, just a little to the right. If they were going to do, at least she'd die knowing she got a kiss(on the lips) from a beautiful woman.

Fate had other plans though, and suddenly there were voices joining the cries that Ikrie had long since blocked out. Aloy's face lit up in recognition. She longed to ask what was going on, but her consciousness was slipping again.

The next thing Ikrie is aware of is warmth and quiet murmurs. Slowly, she realizes that she must have blacked out. The room isn't familiar, but the bed sure is soft, which is most of what her mind focuses on. She is comfy and only a little bit achy, her side barely hurts anymore.

"A-aloy?" It takes a couple tries to get her voice to work correctly.

"You're awake" Her companion appears in a heartbeat, relief plain in her voice.

Ikrie nods and offers a weak smile of reassurance. A dull throb is beginning to male itself known, much to her displeasure. Part of her longs to fall asleep again, but curiosity beats it out for now.

"How'd we get here?" She asked.

"We got lucky, a hunting party of Braves heard the commotion. Once the machines were distracted, it was easy for me to take them out." Aloy explained.

Ikrie laid her head back down with a small smile. She's tired already, an obvious sign that help had come just in the knick of time. Her body wants to give in and fall back asleep. Fortunately for her, it's her mind that wins out this time.

"I'm glad you're okay." Ikrie murmurs.

"I'm sorry you got hurt." Aloy replies.

This confuses Ikrie for a moment, because she can't figure out if it's a general statement or not. She can't remember the injury being the fault of either of them, just plain bad luck that a Scrapper nabbed her. 

"If anyone should be apologizing, it'd be the hole that tripped me." Her humor seemed to have made it through in one piece, at least.

Aloy shook her head while smiling, letting out a resigned sort of laugh. One of her hands had ended up on top of Ikrie's, and traced small circles that betrayed how worried the huntress had been. The gesture made Ikrie's stomach flutter. Aloy seemed to realize what she was doing and turned away with a cough of embarrassment. 

"Glad to see your feeling well enough to make jokes."

"I'm always up for making you laugh." Ikrie responded a little too quickly.

Their roles were reversed for once, with Aloy who looked to be fighting off a blush and not making eye contact. As happy as this made Ikrie, the sleepiness was beginning to set in. Instead of trying to keep that line of conversation up, she yawned heavily.

"Thank you, Aloy, for saving me." Ikrie whispered, eyes drooping.

She was out before she could even hear Aloy's "You're welcome", but she didnt miss the softness of her smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its like 1 am as i post this, so if i missed any errors please let me know!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> any tips/constructive criticism are greatly appreciated!!! 
> 
> if you'd like to submit a prompt, au, or genre feel free to leave a comment! if you'd prefer to do so anonymously, then you can send an ask to snowghostikrie on tumblr!


End file.
